Alice was not with the others. Rather, due to her poor emotional state, the fairy tale witch deliberately avoided her students.
She sat alone at the edge of the Royal Garden, the highest point in the castle district, gazing at the beautiful artificial scenery before her—or more precisely, the scenery created by her housemate and her sister.
Expressionless and silent, Alice picked up a paint palette and brush from the small table beside her and began casually painting the view on her canvas. However, for some reason, the usually soft, graceful tones of her artwork had become somber, as if shrouded in an unshakeable fog.
I shouldn't always be thinking about her, Alice told herself over and over. She has her own life and work... but she broke her promise! She clearly said she'd be back soon!
This childish, sulky thought spread in her heart like wildfire. Her rational mind told her that dwelling on it would only worsen her mood, but her emotions were hard to suppress.
These growing emotions gradually manifested in her painting. Alice's brush moved faster and faster, but the composition grew more chaotic. The once fresh and beautiful scenery became eerie and distorted in her work.
"This painting is awful!" chirped a blue robin as it landed on Alice's shoulder, bluntly critiquing her work. "Did you eat something bad lately, Alice? Your painting skills have gone downhill!"
Alice reached out and grabbed the robin, glaring at it fiercely. After it pleaded for mercy for quite some time, she finally threw it aside like she had lost interest.
"Sigh..." Alice let out a long sigh, setting aside her brush and palette. After hesitating for a moment, she stood up, intending to tear the canvas off the easel and throw it away. After all, she didn't want anyone to see this emotional outburst of a painting.
"It'd be a shame to throw away something this interesting," came a voice from beside her that made Alice's heart skip a beat. A slender, fair, yet strong hand pressed down on the one she was about to use to tear the canvas. "Why not give it to me instead, Alice-chan?"
Alice spun around, and when she saw Aoko's confident, carefree smile, her pupils dilated and her expression stiffened for a moment. But with years of poker-faced experience, she forced the surprise back down.
"Hmph. It's mine; I'll do what I want with it," Alice replied in a tone that even she didn't notice was tinged with irritation. "Let go. Are we that close?"
"Oh dear, if I remember correctly," Aoko said with a mischievous grin, stepping closer and causing Alice to take a half-step back, "this castle, this estate, and even this canvas—weren't they all provided by me?"
"Fine, take it then," Alice gave up arguing with this unreasonable woman, pulling her hand away from the edge of the canvas. "A person like you who breaks promises probably only deserves to look at paintings of this level anyway!"
"Ah, but that won't do." Although Alice had moved her hand, Aoko's hand still gently, firmly held hers. "Because I've prepared a hearty breakfast for the artist of this painting. I wonder if she'd be willing to join me?"
Alice turned her head away, refusing to look at her, but didn't pull her hand back either. She just sulked silently.
Aoko secretly wiped the sweat from her brow. Looks like I managed to get through this crisis...
"I'm sorry," Aoko said sincerely. "I came back late. I had my reasons, but the fact remains—I broke our promise."
Alice said nothing but slowly turned back to glare at Aoko fiercely. Perhaps it was just Aoko's imagination, but she thought she saw a faint blush on Alice's cheeks.
—Scene Break—
"Hahaha, things at the Lands Between are bizarre," Aoko chuckled as she and Aozuki enjoyed a somewhat late breakfast, recounting tales from the strange world. "Queen Marika and her other half had two children, and one of them—just like their mother—is a hermaphrodite. And get this—the male persona of that child became the life partner of his half-brother, fusing into a god-king!"
Weird. Just way too weird. That was Alice's first thought after hearing Aoko's story. Gods and demigods from other worlds are this... free?
"Oh, and the castle we're sitting in was modeled after the magic academy in the Lands Between," Aoko said, spearing a piece of fried potato with her fork and munching it happily. "This time, Touko and I even stayed at that academy for a long time—we mapped it out thoroughly. Soon, we'll renovate our castle to make the interior layout more practical!"
As Aoko rambled endlessly about foreign lands, Alice sipped her tea and listened, feeling like she had returned to childhood—listening to her mother tell tales of wonderful or terrifying fairy tales.
"...Ranni's mother, Rennala, gave birth to her with Radagon, Queen Marika's other half. But Rennala's sister, Rellana—Ranni's aunt—fell in love with Marika's firstborn son, who is also Ranni's brother, Messmer..."
At this point, the usually reserved Alice was wide-eyed in shock. The chaotic relationships in Aoko's story struck her down like a mental sledgehammer. But amidst the shock, she managed to catch onto a key point:
"Who's Ranni?" Alice asked cautiously. "You talk like you know her well."
At that moment, Aoko swiftly invoked the Fifth Magic to compress her thoughts in time, and after a rapid mental scramble, offered what she hoped was a non-suspicious answer:
"A strange woman with four arms and blue skin," Aoko gestured dramatically, even using illusion magic to conjure an image of Ranni. "She's a princess from the country where that magic academy is located—kind of a partner of mine and Touko's..."
Seeing Alice's wariness subside a bit, Aoko once again wiped her mental sweat.